Call center outsourcing is a stressful environment for agents to work in. Working as the manager is another story entirely. It takes a strong-willed individual to not only manage their agents but also to adhere to tight work schedules, deal with angry or frustrated callers, and meet seemingly impossible expectations.
Common Call Center Outsourcing Challenges
The call center industry is steadily growing. With that growth comes challenges managers face on a daily basis. Check out these common call center outsourcing challenges managers face:
Agent Retention
Bringing on highly qualified agents is challenging because they represent your company. The attrition rate of call center agents is already high across the industry. When an agent leaves, there are fewer hands available to tend to the clients. Upon hiring new agents, additional resources go into training them for the job.
Therefore, agent retention is a top priority among call center outsourcing managers. They are responsible for developing a qualified team of upstanding call center agents. They also have to keep them happy and excited about coming to work each day.
Precise Reporting and Analytics
Call centers accumulate a ton of customer data. Reporting tools sort the information, producing reports with details on productivity and sales that are important key performance indicators. Call center outsourcing managers are typically accountable for delivering critical reports to other departments.
For example, sales and marketing will be given reports on outbound/inbound sales performance. The finance department requires operational expense reports. The technology department will need reports related to the call center’s operational performance.
Meeting Customer Expectations
As customer expectations change due to the digital age and social media, the demand to meet customer expectations has increased. Clients speaking with a call center agent expect to have their problems solved swiftly. If this expectation is not met, the chance of customer attrition increases. The loss of customers to a competitor is significant.
Negative Impact of Social Media
People are using social media more than ever to vent their bad experiences with companies around the world. There isn’t a single company out there that is exempt from the possibility of being targeted by an angry customer. Occasionally, it turns into a PR nightmare. A disconnect between agents and callers tends to be a driving factor leading to frustrated callers. Managers should prepare their call center agents by training them to handle irate customer calls.
Workplace Optimization
Present call centers are outfitted with state-of-the-art call center software and an array of tools for tackling a variety of tasks. When call center agents are working with several tools at a time, it can lead to mistakes if they are not properly trained.
It’s imperative to successfully identify peak call periods in order to schedule more call center outsourcing agents for those times. During slower call periods, agents not taking calls can be allocated to other tasks to improve productivity in other areas needing assistance. Being prepared by having enough staff members to handle forecasted call volume is critical if the managers hope to optimize production and sales.
Benefits for All
Not having enough or having too few agents are just a couple of major call center management hurdles. By addressing these issues with beneficial solutions, call center outsourcing managers can develop a healthy work environment for their agents, which in turn leads to a positive experience for your customers.
